As I see it | The Nobel Peace Prize should now be called the Nobel war prize

Winner Maria Corina Machado can be held up as a poster child of American militarism against her own country, Venezuela, and across Latin America

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Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado addresses supporters at an anti-government rally in Caracas, Venezuela, on January 9. Photo: AP

Published: 9:30am, 15 Oct 2025Updated: 9:34am, 15 Oct 2025

Donald Trump is reportedly furious that he didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize. Instead, it went to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. But if the US president could see beyond his megalomania for a moment, he would realise that the Norwegian Nobel Committee has bent over backwards to placate his administration.

The far-right Machado, after all, was nominated by Trump’s own Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he was still a senator, and former national security adviser and now US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, along with other lawmakers.

She once reportedly declared on CBS News in the US that, “The only way to stop the suppression is by force – US force.”

Soon after the committee’s announcement, Machado spoke on the phone with Trump, who apparently didn’t remember her name. “The person who actually got the Nobel Prize … called me and said, ‘I’m accepting this in honour of you, because you really deserved it’,” Trump told reporters. “A very nice thing to do. I didn’t, didn’t say, ‘Then give it to me’, though I think she might have.”

A billboard blaming opposition leaders for supporting US sanctions is displayed in Caracas, Venezuela, on October 10. Photo: AFP

Praising the head of the US empire – which has treated her country as an enemy and is launching military operations – doesn’t seem very peaceful.

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